Using the Austrian Business Survey between 2011 and 2016, we study how firms' individual credit market experiences influence their beliefs about the bank lending policy. Firms that have recently experienced a loan rejection are more likely to believe that the lending policy is restrictive. We see similar effects for firms that were granted loans, but with conditions worse than anticipated. Exploiting the panel structure shows that firms without recent credit market experience are less likely to change their beliefs, which converge towards the middle category. Our findings are in line with theories of rational inattention and with asymmetric experience effects.

Landnutzungsentscheidungen werden u. a. aufgrund der Knappheit der Landfläche bzw. der Knappheit des Bodens und der vom Boden zur Verfügung gestellten Leistungen (z. B. bereitstellende, regulierende und kulturelle Ökosystemleistungen; Box 1.2 Abschnitt 3.5) getroffen. Bei vielen Entscheidungen können nicht alle Nutzungsansprüche erfüllt werden. Die Entscheidungen werden individuell (z. B. durch Wahl des Wohnstandortes) und kollektiv (z. B. Ressourcen-, Energie- und Infrastrukturpolitik) getroffen. Auch die Unterlassung flächensparender oder klimafreundlicher Entscheidungen und das Dulden umweltkontraproduktiver Subventionen können die Landnutzung beeinflussen.

Das Thema Landnutzung und Klima berührt Akteur:innen mit unterschiedlichen Zielsetzungen, die sowohl Synergien erzeugen, als auch miteinander in Konkurrenz stehen. Die Land- und Forstwirtschaft, das produzierende Gewerbe, die Freizeitwirtschaft, der Verkehr, Siedlungen, Infrastrukturausbau und der Naturschutz sind aktive Gestalter. Die Stadt- und Raumplanung, Naturschutz-, Forst- und Landwirtschaftsgesetzgebung stellen den Handlungs- und Lenkungsrahmen her. Klima- und Umweltkrisen, deren Dynamik teilweise von Antriebskräften außerhalb der Landnutzung herrührt, können existierende Zielkonflikte verschärfen oder neue herbeiführen (Plieninger et al., 2016). Viele wissenschaftliche Disziplinen sind mit dem Thema befasst, von den Natur- und Umweltwissenschaften über die Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften bis hin zu den technischen Wissenschaften.

In contrast to the healthcare system, which is financed by social insurance, long-term care (LTC) is financed by general taxation in Austria. The LTC system in Austria is characterised by a strong reliance on family and other informal care. Persons in need of LTC are supported by a LTC allowance and by the provision of LTC services. While the federal state is responsible for the former, the nine provinces (Bundesländer) are responsible for the provision of the latter. Most services are provided by non-profit organisations and by public bodies (e.g., communities). The provinces are obliged by law to provide care services, but they are largely free to organise them as they see fit, which results in a wide variety of services and conditions across the provinces. Additional support by the federal state is provided for the employment of live-in carers and to informal carers.

Health expectancy (HE), commonly derived from cross-sectional prevalence data using the Sullivan method, serves as the most frequently used summary measure of population health. Like lifespan distribution statistics, which are often discussed alongside life expectancy (LE) in demographic studies, analogous statistics on healthy lifespans can provide valuable information on population health. We examine whether healthy lifespan distribution statistics beyond HE can be estimated based on cross-sectional prevalence data and the life table, the data inputs of the Sullivan method. To do so, we treat the Sullivan method as an extension of the stationary population model to health and distinguish between health conditions with and without recovery from the state of decreased health. Our empirical demonstration is based on the prevalence of chronic diseases in selected European countries in 2017 from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), as well as on life tables from Eurostat. We find that the Sullivan method, when considered as an extension of the stationary population model to health, allows for the estimation of a healthy survival distribution and its statistics, beyond HE, for health characteristics with no recovery from the state of decreased health. We show that for such health conditions, the method requires that the number of persons in full health in a stationary population does not increase with age. We argue that for such health dimensions, HE conditional on being in good health at the life table radix age is of relevance for health policy interventions. In our empirical application, we show that the conditional and unconditional measures of HE can give substantially different pictures of population health. Furthermore, we show that across European countries, in contrast to the negative relationship between LE and lifespan inequality, higher HE is associated with greater inequality in healthy years lived when conditional on being healthy at age 50. Overall, the Sullivan method, when considered as an extension of the stationary population model, proves to be a valuable tool for deriving summary statistics of population health beyond HE, which are highly relevant to public policy.

The EU Directive on Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence has sparked fierce debate about the regulation of supply chains. The directive’s objectives are aligned with European values. However, it raises concerns that the compliance costs of social and environmental regulations may be privatised in complex supply networks, particularly in third countries with weak enforcement mechanisms. This paper suggests options to make the directive more effective and efficient. It suggests excluding countries with sufficient regulatory systems and focusing only on supplier-buyer relationships instead of the entire network. Public agencies should set harmonised regulatory standards, interpret the regulations and organise a private certification scheme in which certification companies assume liabilities. The proposed system resembles the market for financial auditors.

Austria is a small open economy that in the last decades underwent two different waves of increasing trade integration: one with Eastern Europe and one with China. Drawing on trade theory, this paper studies the effects of increases in trade with China and Eastern Europe on labour market dynamics in Austrian NUTS-4 regions for two ten-year periods between 1995 and 2015. Given the limited data available, the current analysis could not identify significant effects on aggregate labour dynamics neither for rising imports from Eastern Europe or China, nor for rising exports to Eastern Europe. However, there is weak evidence that exports to China have facilitated employment growth, especially in high quality segments. Overall, these results add a cautious perspective to the discussion of import competition.